Unheralded Chase “The White Tiger” Shields is the new WBC USNBC Light Middleweight Champion. He accomplished this feat by defeating the more experienced Jimmy Lange the defending champion by unanimous decision in front of his 5123 home town fans this past Saturday at the Patriot Center in Fairfax Virginia.

Characteristic of most Jimmy Lange’s fights, he has had 9 in a row at the Patriot Center, he came into the arena under a rain of graffiti to the cheers of his fans, but Chase Shields was unfazed and took command of the fight immediately digging, jabbing and landing some lead rights that caught the seemingly patient Jimmy Lange flush. Jimmy seemed to be concentrating on popping Shield’s to the body to lose the 1st two rounds. By round three Lange gained some momentum and began methodically stalking and landing digging combinations to the body of Shields, but he was unable to effectively cut off the ring as Shield circled away occasionally countering when Lange moved in.

By round four both fighters were sitting on their punches with Lange attacking the body and aggressively banging away at Shields whenever he could get a chance during the next several clinches as the fight got more heated forcing the referee to warn both fighters and particularly Lange for rough house tactics. Shield did make Lange pay by jabbing and landing to his body. By round five Lange had taken command of the fight and began wearing down Shields and closing the distance between and trying to cut off the ring. Rounds six through eight was a ding dong affair as both combatants jabbed countered, clinched and jabbed mightily against each other as Shields seemed to get a second wind. There were a couple of times were each fighter brutalized each other against the ropes.

In the ninth round the lights in the arena went out and the fight was stopped for about several minutes but when the action picked up Lange rushed in with combinations to keep up the momentum of previous surge, but the more composed Shields traded and began to break down the now wearied Lange and even wrestled him down to the floor near the end of the 10th round. Lange came out strongly in eleventh but a hook quickly buckled him and his hands and knees touched the canvas forcing the referee to give him a standing eight count, Shields followed up immediately with several lunging right hooks and a discombobulated Lange absorbed several vicious upper cuts and was chased from pillar to post as he tried to evade Shields punches but a quick right hook after a spin off during a clinch dropped him to the canvas,. Lange to his credit tried mightily to get his feet under him and beat the count and tried to counter but Shields was relentless and kept on lunging with hooks to win the round 11th round. Lange stepped on the gas in the last round and he desperately tried to to mount an assault, stalking, bum rushing and hooking Shields even occasionally trapping and banging away at Shields against the ropes, but Shields coasted through the round by countering, wrestling off and and using movement to negate Lange last flurries to close out the fight.

The judges scored it 115-111, 115-111, 115-111 in favor of Chase Shields who was the clear winner after those knockdowns, and the new champion’s reign began, his record now improves to a very impressive 30 wins, 3 losses and 1 draw with 14 ko’s. However a review of his resume shows victories over 3rd tier opponents with losing records, and a defeat in his first step up in class to former NABF champion Juan Candelo, but he did win the Texas Light Middleweight Title and perhaps he may be able to capitalize on the momentum of this win – his most impressive to date, with more impressive wins.

Jimmy Lange’s who has able to convert his popularity from appearing on the 1st season of the contender into winning the World Boxing Empire “WBE” and the WBC’S Continental Americas light middleweight titles sees his career now at crossroads after this loss, and the frustration of his Dad who doubles as his manager was evident as Lange has previously had veteran trainers Buddy Mcgirt, Angelo Dundee, and Don Turner in his corner for this fight and despite Lange’s dad manager statements that Lange “stunk up the joint” with his performance post fight and should have done much better against a fighter of Shields caliber, you have to wonder how much more Lange has left in the tank after progressively brutal fights including his two wars with Fontaine Cabel that forced him into an extended recess to recover.

” I take care of myself and stay in shape” Lange disdainfully brushed aside a question about whether those brutal fights had taken a toll on him in contributing to this losing performance. He appeared determined and seemed to be looking forward to a rematch, and barring no hold outs from Shields who may be interested in other fights, that fight may happen. Team Lange has stated that the look forward to leaving their rock solid fan base at the Patriot Center to go on the road to Shields hometown of Houston Texas to try to regain his crown. And with a record now standing at 31 wins, 4 losses, and 2 draws with 21ko’s he may be able to back up his intentions in the rematch if it happens.

The fight was well promoted by ICE Promotions in association with Brotman Winter Fried Communications and the DC boxing crowd including the first Lady of Boxing Jackie Kallen, former heavyweight champion Riddick Bowe, and top rated middleweight Paul Williams in attendance.

In a Junior Welterweight bout featured as the special attraction on the undercard the seemingly mismatched Ikem “The Warrior” Orji (6-2, 1 KO) from Nigeria but fighting out of Washington DC from the Laurel Boxing Club scored an impressive 4th Round over the more experienced Andrew Farmer (13-2, 7 KOs ) the more hyped fighter and supposedly experienced fighter between the duo judging by Farmer’s record.

Although his balance seemed a bit shaky, Orji methodically broke down the more experienced farmer in the first three rounds, and knocked him out at the 1:01 mark of the 4th.

About MICHAEL AMAKOR

Michael Amakor has written 174 post in this blog.

Michael “Keep Punching” Amakor has been the Chief Scribe of popular boxing website FightKings.Com since 2003. He has written over 100 articles about boxing that have been vicariously read and extensively blogged across the internet and on major boxing websites. He can be seen regularly at the fights giving round by round commentary and he is a regular commentator on the boxing radio and TV circuit.

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